Cash-strapped UMass Dartmouth students seeking online 'sugar daddies'

A small but growing number of students are hitting the Internet for sugar daddies — or sugar mommas — to take care of everything from car payments to textbooks using websites like SeekingArrangement.com. The number of UMass Dartmouth students using the website spiked 54 percent last year, with about 100 Corsairs using the site to find their perfect "mutually beneficial relationship," a company spokeswoman said.

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By MATT CAMARA

southcoasttoday.com

By MATT CAMARA

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 18, 2013 at 5:58 AM

By MATT CAMARA

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 18, 2013 at 5:58 AM

» Social News

DARTMOUTH — When spring classes begin Tuesday, many UMass Dartmouth students will need money from their parents, loans or a part-time job to cover their tuition.

Others will go find a "sugar daddy."

A small but growing number of students are hitting the Internet for sugar daddies — or sugar mommas — to take care of everything from car payments to textbooks using websites like SeekingArrangement.com. The number of UMass Dartmouth students using the website spiked 54 percent last year, with about 100 Corsairs using the site to find their perfect "mutually beneficial relationship," a company spokeswoman said.

The university is not alone. Nationwide, college student memberships on SeekingArrangment shot up by 58 percent and some schools like New York University and Boston University saw two- and three-fold increases in the number of aspiring "sugar babies."

The SeekingArrangement site bills itself as a place for successful, established men and women to exchange gifts and mentorship in return for the companionship of a young, attractive "sugar baby."

The site is open to both men and women seeking the financial support of an older partner. However, women make up the vast majority of sugar babies, said Jennifer Gwynn, a spokesman for the Las Vegas-based InfoStream Group Inc., which owns the site along with SeekingMillionaire.com.

Nearby Bridgewater State University saw a 47 percent increase and has about 75 students using the site, Gwynn said.

The numbers are generated by seeing which profiles are tied to college email addresses, she said.

The average sugar baby nationwide receives $3,000 per month from her sugar daddy, Gwynn said.

It costs in-state resident students $22,255 to attend UMass Dartmouth. Out-of-state students pay $33,602, according to the university's website.

Emails to a number of UMass Dartmouth women's studies and sociology professors went unreturned. Staff at the university's Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality said they were unaware of any students using the site, had not heard of it and doubted sugar babies would be a "clientele" typically using the feminist center's resources.

UMass Dartmouth students approached by a reporter weren't sold on using the site.

"Here I am applying for a student loan and these girls are on Seeking-Arrangement," said sophomore Kaitlyn Mello, of Rochester, as she scrolled through profiles on the site to see if she recognized anyone. "I can't rationalize people using this."

Profiles on the site are brutally honest, with potential sugar babies listing the minimum they will accept from a would-be sugar daddy. Many ask for more than $2,000 a month and some go so far as to ask for $10,000. Others set their desired amount to "negotiable."

And while several students called the site immoral, the company defends itself by saying that it's simply human nature to seek a younger, beautiful partner.

"Tens of thousands of years ago, when humans were cavemen and cavewomen, we were doing exactly the same thing," the company's website says. "Except, back then, men who were the best hunters were the sugar daddies of their times."

The site denies any connection to prostitution, and Gwynn said profiles are policed. The Attorney General's Office said its Consumer Protection Division has never received a complaint about the site.

UMass Dartmouth spokesman John Hoey said he was unfamiliar with the site and that the administration would look into it to see whether there was any response it needed to make.

Back in the library, Mello, who works part time at Market Basket in New Bedford, sighed and continued looking through profiles on the site. "It just seems a lot easier" than taking out loans, she said. "If only I didn't have morals."